IIHS: The Safest Cars of 2019

by
Abby Badach Doyle
on
December 19, 2018

Shopping for a new car can feel a little overwhelming – especially with today’s high-tech safety features. From crash avoidance to emergency autobrake, today’s car shoppers have more options than ever before.

Luckily, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gives us common folks a great place to start with their annual list of TOP SAFETY PICK awards. Whether you’re actively shopping or just seeing what’s out there, here’s what made the cut for 2019.

How It Works (And What They Score)

Since 2006, the safety experts at the IIHS (a nonprofit research and education organization) conduct tests to determine which vehicles do the best job of protecting people in the most common kinds of crashes — front, side, rollover and rear.

This isn’t a participation trophy. Standards for the TOP SAFETY PICK and TOP SAFETY PICK+ awards are tough. Over time, the IIHS has strengthened the criteria as new technology – and crash test protocols – become available. In the 2013 model year, they added the top-tier “plus” award to acknowledge the best of the best.

Here’s what this year’s winners had to do to earn each award:

TOP SAFETY PICK+: This year, 30 models were awarded the top-tier award. These all earned the highest rating for passenger-side protection in a small overlap front crash and have good-rated available headlights. (Headlight testing was added to the criteria just last year.)

TOP SAFETY PICK: The 27 winners of the second-tier award earned acceptable or higher rating in the passenger-side small overlap front test and the nighttime headlight evaluation.

Both: Together, all 57 award-winning vehicles have good ratings in the IIHS’ five other crashworthiness evaluations. They all also have an available automatic emergency braking system that rates advanced or superior for front crash prevention.

After the IIHS toughened up its testing criteria for 2018, only 15 vehicles earned the top-tier “plus” rating. In turn, auto manufacturers stepped up their game. For 2019, the winners’ list doubled to a total of 30 vehicles.